sustainable development39
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Squeezing the Last Drops out of Sicily
If you were to drive south from Palermo, Sicily toward Monreale, you would be ringed in by green mountains, the sparkling white of ancient and modern buildings and the azure Mediterranean Sea receding behind you. Continuing south through the island’s mountainous interior, you would pass verdant agricultural fields on your way past Corleone, the namesake…
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Water-Saving Project in Punjab, India Reaches Out to Farmers Through Cooperatives
After working with over 500 farmers last year to conduct a field experiment on the use of tensiometers to reduce irrigation in rice fields, this year they will be working with about 5,000. As part of this expansion, our program partners at the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) are working with Cooperative Societies, a network of…
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Attack of the Warzone Water Bottles
Using bottled water in war zones uses oil and pollutes the environment. But Defense officials are looking to move toward sustainability.
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Clean Water vs. Cheap Energy: Can We Have Both?
The social fabric of a water quality debate: Anti-fracking protesters converge on Albany… again. A battle of wills between advocates of clean water and cheap energy ensues.
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Jeffrey Sachs Extends Term as Director of Earth Institute
The Earth Institute, Columbia University announced that Professor Jeffrey Sachs has agreed to extend his term as its director. Since his tenure began in 2002, Sachs has led the Earth Institute to become a leading scientific authority on sustainable development while simultaneously expanding its reach worldwide. Through his guidance, the Earth Institute and its scientists…
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Paulie, Jimmy and Vinny on NYC’s Water Future
New York City’s trio of water and sewer czars, explain the reasons behind rising rates.
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Growing Up: Water Efficiency and Sunless Farming
As Earth’s population continues to grow and a dynamic global climate shifts our expectations of where and when food can be grown, scientists are trying to find new ways to get more from less.
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Biomimicry: Learning From Nature’s Genius
Biomimicry is the science of studying and emulating nature’s solutions to the problems that human beings are trying to solve. Over the 3.8 billion years that life has existed on Earth, nature, through evolution, has come up with sustainable and robust solutions that work and that endure.
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A Tentative Year for REDD+: Placing Value on Forests
Forests, particularly tropical forests, are economically valuable for their biodiversity and, especially relevant for climate change, their ability to store carbon within their vegetation and soil. Alternately, destruction of forests releases carbon into the atmosphere. Deforestation and forest degradation account for 12-20% of GHG emissions. REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) is a…
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